(EP-247.1) Caged #2

247 – Caged Bird #2

When the whole story was told, Elga was the first to react.

She slammed her palm down on the conference table in the Great Temple, furious.

“They were doing that behind our backs? Those damned elves…!”

Elga, who considered plots and schemes to be the work of cowards, was understandably angry about the elves’ secret actions behind the kingdom.

“They dare meddle with the Demon King’s magic? Researching the resurrection of the dead? That’s exactly what the Demon King did!”

She was right.

Even Solomon, who had been praised as a wise king when he first took the throne, went mad after researching the resurrection of the dead.

That’s why ‘resurrection’ magic was considered taboo and a great sin by both the Kingdom of Angmar and the Gwangyeong Church.

The fact that they had broken this taboo was enough to warrant severe condemnation.

“Why would they even consider that? Hey, Mirna. Isn’t this sort of thing you Draco’s should watch and contain?”

While Elga fumed, Mirna, who had already heard the story from me and could maintain her composure, spoke calmly.

“We were actually keeping an eye on the Bellhawk family’s activities. There was a time when many necromancers, arcane witches, shamans, and mediums were employed by them.”

“So?”

“We knew they were up to something, but we couldn’t have guessed they were trying to resurrect the dead using Solomon’s forbidden magic.”

“So you’re not incompetent after all.”

Mirna’s brow furrowed deeply at Elga’s blunt remark.

“Then what about the Lioness family? Aren’t you responsible for Angmar’s security? You boast of the might of your golden army, yet you didn’t notice something like this happening right under your nose.”

“What, what did you just say!?”

“Well, I heard that even at the palace, you didn’t notice anything until Sir Theo sensed the signs of rebellion. An army wearing magnificent cloaks, yet so incompetent~.”

“Hey, we were fighting the barbarians on the borders at the time! Do you think the blood we shed at the frontier is so cheap for you to ramble on, when you just stood on the sidelines?”

Elga growled in anger, and the intensity of her rage was palpable. It made my skin tingle. For her, backing down wasn’t an option, as it would dishonor the blood her family had sacrificed.

However, Mirna was not an easy opponent either. She calmly folded her fan and placed it on the table, unperturbed by Elga’s threats.

I didn’t know what Mirna intended to do with her now free hands, but it certainly wasn’t a peaceful gesture.

The endless blame game and boasting about who was superior and who was inferior reminded me of the Angmar court.

“Excuse me—”

Just when I was about to intervene, fearing that Mirna and Elga might actually start fighting, a lilting laughter broke the tension.

Such a sound didn’t fit the atmosphere.

We turned our heads to see Aira, who had been laughing, twirling the rim of her teacup with her finger.

“The resurrection of the dead? Not as a walking corpse or an undead, but a complete revival. How interesting!”

“…….”

“…….”

Elga and Mirna eased their tension at Aira’s languid voice. But now I was nervous about what Aira would respond next.

“But I doubt that the Bellhawk elves will be able to resurrect the dead, something that even Solomon couldn’t achieve. So it is not what everyone expected.”

Aira was right.

Even if someone spent their entire life researching the resurrection magic that Solomon failed to achieve, it would be futile. They would only waste a lifetime and live in mockery.

So let’s not even try. Others shouldn’t even think that anyone would try something so pointless.

The problem was that the Bellhawk family had the wealth to buy talented people’s time.

They secretly scraped together all sorts of sorcerers, and threw money at them to research and execute the resurrection of the dead.

They had more money than they could ever spend, and plenty of sorcerers in the world would want that fund, so the process was likely easy.

“Yet they failed. Opal was resurrected, but he was not. He was Opal, yet not Opal.”

This was Aira’s assessment.

Momentarily calming down, Elga asked in a disgruntled tone.

“What does that even mean? He was resurrected but not?”

“Rather than explaining it with words, it’s better to show you.”

Crash-.

Aira shattered the cup she was holding. The tea inside spilled onto the table, and the broken shards scattered everywhere.

“This is death. Death is like this—it breaks. The soul that was inside spills, and the body shatters.”

Clink, clatter.

Aira then started gathering the broken pieces, fitting them together one by one. Although not perfect, the cup’s shape was somewhat restored.

“Gathering the broken pieces and collecting the spilled tea to pour back into the damaged cup—that’s the principle of necromancy. Isn’t it, Mirna?”

At Aira’s question, Mirna, who had a grim expression, reluctantly nodded.

“Yes. But even if you pour the tea back into the already broken cup, it will soon leak out. For the same reason, necromancy performed on an already dead body results in soul leakage. That’s why the undead are often mindless.”

‘I see.’

I began to understand why the undead resurrected through necromancy often lacked intelligence.

In that sense, it gave me a newfound appreciation as to how extraordinary the High Lich, Lord Aleister, was for maintaining his intellect.

But Elga said, as if it didn’t matter.

“So what does a broken cup have to do with resurrection?”

“Huhu, my cousin Elganes, is my explanation not enough? Fine, I’ll tell you more. To fully refill an already broken cup, you’d either need to replace the cup or reforge it completely, right?”

“Yeah.”

“But, since pieces were lost when it broke, you can’t completely restore it with just the original fragments. You’d need to use some adhesive. Also, you’d have to brew more tea to make up for the amount that spilled out.”

‘I see…’

Edited by: faker